7 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHILE TREATING PHIMOSIS

You've got a tight foreskin and just found out that daily stretching can help. Before you dive headlong into this endeavor, check out the 7 most common mistakes made by men while treating their physiological phimosis.

﻿1 - USING TOO MUCH FORCE

Stretching should never cause pain. Pain is a sign that the organic tissue is being injured, even if only at the microscopic level. And the problem is that the skin naturally contracts while recovering from micro-injuries, which may increase even further the severity of your phimosis.

So if you're feeling pain, use less force. If even with less tension you still feel pain, it's time to rest: take a break for at least two days before starting over.

After the break, does your skin continue to hurt? Beware, you may have some dermatological problem.

﻿2 - STRETCHing NON-HEALTHY SKIN

Just as in the case of injuries, the skin also contracts while recovering from inflammation or infection, so it is essential that it is healthy. Whatever kind of dermatological problem you are having on the skin of your penis, it is critical that you treat it completely before (re)initiating a daily stretching routine (however, if the problem is only in the glans, as in balanitis , you can still stretch the foreskin[1]).

A fairly common type of dermatological problem in the foreskin is infection by a fungus called Candida (candidiasis), which may end up causing balanoposthitis and thus pathological phimosis[2]. If your skin has cracks, redness, pain or itching, then be sure to seek a doctor (general practitioner, urologist or even dermatologist): in the case of candidiasis for example, it is likely that you will be prescribed some ointment or cream containing clotrimazole or other fungicide.

Like candidiasis, most dermatological problems in the foreskin are reversible when properly treated.

3 - pulling the foreskin back

Many boys and young teenagers end up managing to retract the foreskin simply by repeatedly trying to pull it back. But doing so has some drawbacks:

there is a risk of accidentally retracting the phimotic ring before it is wide enough, and it getting stuck behind the base of the glans (paraphimosis). In that case, you will need to squeeze your ultra-sensitive glans (since it has never been exposed) for some time to reduce its size and carefully lift the foreskin back over it;

if you have a short frenulum, forcing the foreskin back can bend the meatus (urinary orifice) down, causing you to have trouble urinating in the right direction (may end up with wet shoes);

as the age advances, the success rate of this method diminishes considerably, since the adult skin is less elastic than the infantile one and longitudinal stretching does not generate sufficient tension in the plane of interest for the widening of the phimotic ring (coronal plane, the one perpendicular to the shaft of the penis).

If you just fell into this page, click on the button below to learn how to treat your physiological phimosis at home using the correct method:

4 - USING SOAP THAT IS NOT NEUTRAL

The internal parts of your body contain a flora of benign bacteria that defend the body from external contaminants. If you disturb this balance, you are giving chance for an infection to set in. Wash the opening of your foreskin and whatever is within reach therein with only water, or at most with a soap that is pH neutral, unscented and with low amounts of alcohol and detergents.

For skin hydration and regeneration, you can use baby products containing few ingredients, such as zinc or calendula. Castor oil or coconut oil can also be used.

5 - BEING DISCOURAGED BY AN UROLOGIST

Men who solve their phimosis naturally don't ever return to the doctor to tell their success stories.

Besides, stretching the skin is something one needs to do every day for a good few minutes, and most doctors are used to patients who can't even follow a simple medication intake schedule.

​So if your urologist tells you that progressive widening of the phimotic ring does not work, perhaps what he should say is that he doesn't believe you'll have the patience and determination needed, or simply admit he never did any research on the subject.

6 - NOT HAVING ENOUGH PATIENCE

If you think the weeks or months you will have to stretch the foreskin opening in order to get rid of phimosis are too long, think about it this way: dissatisfied circumcised men have to spend several years stretching their remaining skin in order to regain glans coverage (non-surgical foreskin restoration[3]).

​7 - NOT BEING FULLY COMMITTED

Stretching the foreskin is not much different from any fitness program. Folks get all excited in the beginning, but after a while many quit due to lack of determination.

You have to find your own motivation. Why are you doing this? What results are you looking for? Focusing on your goal will help you get through the toughest times, when no progress seems to be occurring.

But in certain cases of pathological phimosis, or even physiological phimosis where the frenulum is extremely short, for example, a surgical intervention may be unavoidable. Would you like to know more about the types of surgery and what they are all about?